Michael O’Neill urges Blackburn to be more ‘durable’ after defeat at Derby

Blackburn head coach Michael O’Neill called on his team to be more “durable” after they were beaten 3-1 at Derby.

Rovers were well placed at half-time through Hayden Carter’s header but the game turned on a miss by Andri Gudjohnsen early in the second half and Derby took advantage.

Former Blackburn forward Ben Brereton Diaz slammed in a 55th-minute equaliser and, after Matt Clarke punished tentative defending in the 74th minute, Rhian Brewster sealed victory with an 82nd-minute header.

O’Neill said: “We played very well in the first half. I thought we dealt with the long balls and picked up lots of second balls and played some really good football although we could have been better in the final third.

“Overall we looked comfortable and going in at 1-0 ahead we felt we deserved it at that point.

“But the squad is not strong and we don’t have depth and at times the team that finishes the game is not as strong as the team that starts the game.

“But we need to develop durability both individually and collectively and I think as a team we need to be more durable and we weren’t able to do that in the second half.

“We are going to need some players back and we are going to need to find some resilience in the current group of players as well.

“I’ve said to the players to be prepared for this to go right to the wire, that’s the way we have to approach it. We have 11 games and we have a massive week ahead of us but it presents us with a big opportunity and we have to try and maximise that opportunity.”

Derby head coach John Eustace described his team’s position in the table as a “fantastic achievement” after a slow start to the season.

He said: “I thought the first half was a difficult half, Blackburn are playing some really good stuff at the moment and we knew it was going to be a really difficult game.

“I was disappointed with the way we were with the ball and without it in the first half but we adapted second half, we wanted to be more on the front foot in certain areas and I thought we were excellent.

“I think we’ve got to enjoy the last 11 games now, we wanted to see the club progress from last season and this season has been all about that and putting us in the right direction.

“To be on 51 points with 11 games to go is a fantastic achievement, especially after the first 10 games where we didn’t get the rub of the green with injuries and we recruited very late.

“We found a way to pick up a few points and in the last 20 odd games we’ve been a team that’s probably quite high in the form table and the way we’ve been progressing on and off the pitch has been fantastic.

“To get to this stage at the end of February is very, very good but there’s still a lot of hard work ahead.”